The Devil Princess Sabrina Spellman/Morningstar returns to her third season finally embracing the darker, hellish, peculiar approach we’ve been waiting for. The show finds its strength in the development of each character, thus allowing a more developed storyline as opposed to it being slowed down due to character emotions. This is a complete 180 from earlier seasons where I think Sabrina was a little mopey. This season also effectively uses its time well by allowing room for many other fan-favs to also find their own recognition on the playing field with their own stories coming together and amazingly without overall losing sight of the main storyline.
With the knowledge that she is Satan’s true daughter and a potential harbinger of doom, Sabrina ascends in Hell’s hierarchy and steps into her new role as Queen. While she definitely stumbles along the way, the crowned daughter of Lucifer has only one mission – to free Nicholas from an internal battle with the Devil himself. At first, I began to worry that this could become the beginning of another sad-Sabrina storyline, however, it only further activated Sabrina’s acceptance of her power. Finding herself contested for the Throne of Hell, it felt that she had finally come to terms with her power as Morningstar, whether or not she wanted to use it. The theme of her being ambitious for more power hadn’t come off to me as strongly as the third season implies.
Except I found myself relating to her because she chooses to take the more “abrasive” approach more often than not. This resulted in Sabrina’s conflicted mindset – between what’s morally correct, and what’s realistically practical. The underlying conflict pushes more along with the realistically practical in this season, leading away from the more emotional, mopey-type scenes. I found that the execution of not only Sabrina’s storyline but the other main character’s storylines were all capable of having compelling plots.
Not only was I impressed by the storyline of each character individually but also the complexity in which they were all woven into each other. Whether or not the directors intended for it, the prevalent theme of acceptance and embracing who you are gives fans the resolve of wanting to see characters develop. From Nick choosing to leave Sabrina to address his inner demons; to Zelda accepting even though people move on, the family will always be family no matter the situation. Having given each their own resolving story, the third season creates an interesting effect – Where the overarching storyline is concluded (sort of SABRINA), but the individual characters on their own platforms now have an even playing field to become more than what we’ve seen.
Prudence was the beginning of this change, where we saw her at the end of the second season realize her place as “Blackwood”, and choosing to seek out and murder her father, Faustus. The subtle changes in her appearance and her saucy relationship in Ambrose didn’t change her overall character, it enhanced her. Prudence now accepts who she isn’t, allowing her to now stand as whoever she wants to be. Part of me wants her to join the Spellmans, as she inherently ran to them when the coven was poisoned by her father, but of course, she is free to make up her own mind as she will!
The way this season ties this theme back to Sabrina supports her own journey of acceptance and the overall story. Although she basically screwed it up at the end, she also wasn’t in denial that there is a side of her that wants to be the Queen of Hell. Instead of usually fighting it, she does let herself embrace that side of her and where required, she doesn’t hold anything back. We see her performing duties as Queen of Hell, most importantly taking souls back to Hell. On her second errand to collect damned souls, she meets an Ice Cream man who at the edge of death, sold his soul to the Devil. Each time Lucifer came to collect, he would allow the Ice Cream man to extend his contract by killing innocent souls – in his case, choosing young girls and eating their hearts… Sabrina did what any soul would’ve. Taking advice from her father, she finally accepts that in her quest for either the crown of Hell or freedom, she would have to give in to her dark side. The ending almost backtracks on all of Sabrina’s development where you could argue she didn’t learn anything at all.
Like Prudence, Nick and even Zelda however, this season allowed for many internal conflicts to be resolved therefore endorsing their own journey of self-empowerment. This adds to why the theme of acceptance heightened this entire season for me. My only concern which isn’t necessarily a “negative”, is that we may not see these individual storylines play out further than they have and that everything will fall back into the main story. It’s sort of nuance to me when directors/writers do this, but nonetheless I will still happily watch the next season.
This season receives a solid 4.5/5 #NerdifiedCertified for me!
Oh before I go… one last thing… WHEN IN HEAVEN IS SALEM GOING TO SPEAK?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?
